Confocal laser scanning microscopes in which a sample is irradiated with and scanned by laser light and only fluorescent light emitted from the focal plane of the laser light, out of the fluorescent light emitted from the sample, is extracted by a pin hole to observe the sample, have been popular (e.g. see Patent Document 1). Some confocal laser scanning microscopes can observe a plurality of scanning areas continuously by continuously scanning a plurality of scanning areas.
Now a case of sequentially scanning a scanning area A1, scanning area A2 and scanning area A3 in FIG. 10 using a conventional confocal laser scanning microscope, is considered. First a drive table, which is a data string to control scanning of the scanning area A1, is stored in a memory, and the scanning area A1 is scanned based on the drive table stored in the memory. Then the memory is overwritten by a drive table for the scanning area A2, and the scanning area A2 is scanned based on the updated drive table, and finally the memory is overwritten with a drive table for the scanning area A3, and the scanning area A3 is scanned based on the updated drive table.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-98468
It takes some time to stabilize operation of a scanner that controls the angle of a mirror used for performing scanning with the laser light and a scanner drive system for driving the scanner. Therefore if the scanning path is linearly moved from the end point of the scanning area A1 to the start point of the scanning area A2, to start scanning from the beginning of the scanning area A2, after scanning in the scanning area A1 is completed, as shown in FIG. 10, the first several lines of the scanning area A2 may not be scanned accurately, and such a problem as distortion may occur in the obtained image.
In order to perform stable scanning from the beginning of the scanning area A2, an auxiliary scanning area for stabilizing operation of the scanner drive system, including the electric and mechanical systems, must be disposed before the scanning area A2, which generates a delay in processing time.